As Elon Musk’s personal fortune is expected to surpass $1 trillion with tomorrow’s SpaceX IPO, making him the world’s first trillionaire, a new Oxfam analysis reveals this would make Musk richer than the poorest 46% of the world population, or 3.8 billion people, combined.
Hitting $1 trillion would mean Musk’s wealth grew by over $550 billion over the past year, equivalent to an average rate of over $1 million per minute. Oxfam estimates that ending extreme poverty for a year would cost $96.2 billion, less than 10% of Elon Musk's wealth.
According to Oxfam, such extreme concentrated wealth is symptomatic of decades of pro-billionaire politics that have allowed the ultra-rich to write economic rules in their favour.
The analysis comes as a new poll, carried out by YouGov on behalf of Oxfam in the UK, finds:
- Six in ten Britons (60%) think it is unacceptable for any individual to hold more than £1 trillion in personal wealth.
- Three quarters (76%) would support a 2% wealth tax on net assets worth more than £10 million, which Oxfam says could raise an estimated £24 billion in additional revenue annually.
- 71% of Britons believe the current economic system works mainly in the interests of the very wealthy rather than ordinary people - a finding Oxfam says reflects growing public frustration with extreme inequality and falling living standards.
Oxfam Scotland says the passing of the historic wealth threshold for the first time would reinforce the urgent need for action to combat wealth inequality globally, including by individual governments.
Campaigners are calling on the UK Government to use its powers to better tax wealth, a hugely popular measure which could unlock billions of pounds of extra money each year to tackle poverty at home and abroad, invest in under-pressure public services, reduce inequality and fund fair climate action.
Campaigners say the Scottish Government has a role to play too, with Oxfam Scotland urging Ministers to use devolved powers to build a fairer tax system, including by replacing Council Tax with a fairer tax based on current property wealth and by expediting plans for a tax on super-polluting private jets used by the ultra-wealthy – ensuring this is set high.
Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “At a time when folk are struggling with the high cost of living, the prospect of the world’s first trillionaire isn’t something to celebrate, instead it’s a dark day that should stop us all in our tracks.
“We’re living through a new gilded age, and it won’t fix itself. The rise of a trillionaire should be an alarm bell for governments everywhere. While we may not have trillionaires in Scotland, people still feel the consequences of an economy that isn’t working for them.
“Extreme wealth on this scale doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of political choices that have stacked the system in favour of the richest, creating levels of inequality most people know just aren’t right. It’s incumbent on governments everywhere, including in the UK and here in Scotland, to act, because no society can thrive when extreme wealth for a few comes at the expense of everyone else.”
Oxfam’s analysis reveals the startling scale of a $1 trillion fortune:
- If Musk spent $1 million per day, it would take him 2,740 years to spend $1 trillion.
- With $1 trillion, Musk could give $100 to everyone on Earth, and he would still be one of the ten richest billionaires in the world, with more than $184 billion left over.
- A 10% tax on Musk’s $1 trillion fortune could end global extreme poverty for a year, lifting over 800 million people above the extreme poverty line.
/ENDS
For more information and interviews, please contact: Rebecca Lozza, Media and Communications Adviser, Oxfam Scotland: rlozza1@oxfam.org.uk / 07917738450
Notes to editors:
- All polling figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,167 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 5th - 6th May 2026. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
- Download Oxfam’s annual inequality report, “Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power,” here.
- Download Oxfam’s media brief, “SpaceX: Of Musk, For Musk, and By Musk,” here.
- Download Oxfam’s media brief, “Trillionaire in the Making: How Tesla turbocharged Musk's fortune and US inequality,” here.
- Read Oxfam’s blog on the rise of the tech oligarchy here.
- Elon Musk’s wealth data is from the Forbes Real Time Billionaires List.
- Data on net personal wealth is from the World Inequality Database, while Elon Musk’s net worth is from the Forbes real-time billionaires’ list. In 2024, the bottom 46% of humanity, equivalent to 3.8 billion people, had a combined net wealth of US$890 billion (adjusted to January 2026 prices). All calculations were based on a current net worth of $1 trillion. On May 31, 2025, Musk had a net worth of $422.7 billion.
- Oxfam’s calculations show, based on World Bank data, that in 2024, the cost of ending extreme poverty for a year is $96.2 billion. Just 10% of Elon Musk wealth is enough to end extreme poverty in the world. The poverty lines and national poverty gaps are from the World Bank and are in Purchasing Power Parity. For each country, we converted the two poverty lines into U.S. dollars at the market exchange rate using the market exchange rates and purchasing power conversion factors from World Inequality Database. The amount needed to end poverty for one year is the product of the poverty gap, poverty line, population and 365 days. We then aggregated values for all the countries.
- Recent analysis of the Sunday Times Rich List by the STUC suggests that the combined wealth of Scotland’s ten richest people is now more than £23 billion at a time when one in five children still face the injustice of poverty.
- Separate analysis at UK level by The Equality Trust suggests that in 2026, Britain’s 157 billionaires hold wealth equivalent to 22% of the country’s total GDP, with the richest 50 families holding more wealth than the poorest 34 million people combined.
